The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Echinacea plant, botanically known as Echinacea hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Southern Belle’.
The new Echinacea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Vleuten and Zuidwolde, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new freely branching and freely flowering Echinacea plants with large centers and attractive ray and disc floret coloration.
The new Echinacea plant originated from a cross-pollination in July, 2007 in Vleuten, The Netherlands of a proprietary selection of Echinacea hybrida identified as code number Ec 201-01, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Echinacea hybrida identified as code number Ec 558-05, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Echinacea plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled environment in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands in July, 2009.
Asexual reproduction of the new Echinacea plant by micropropagation a controlled environment in Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands since July, 2009, has shown that the unique features of this new Echinacea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.